Exodus 13:1

And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When he and the Israelites were at Succoth: saying; as follows.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, No JFB commentary on this verse.

Exodus 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] God hath a saying to such as he hath saved: and what it is, see Exodus 13:2.

CHAPTER XIII God establishes the law concerning the first-born, and commands that all such, both of man and beast, should be sanctified unto him, 1, 2. Orders them to remember the day in which they were brought out of Egypt, when they should be brought to the land of Canaan; and to keep this service in the month Abib, 3-5. Repeats the command concerning the leavened bread, 6, 7, and orders them to teach their children the cause of it, 8, and to keep strictly in remembrance that it was by the might of God alone they had been delivered from Egypt, 9. Shows that the consecration of the first-born, both of man and beast, should take place when they should be settled in Canaan, 10-12. The first-born of man and beast to be redeemed, 13. The reason of this also to be shown to their children, 14, 15. Frontlets or phylacteries for the hands and forehead commanded, 16. And the people are not led directly to the promised land, but about through the wilderness; and the reason assigned, 17, 18. Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him, 19. They journey from Succoth and come to Etham, 20. And the Lord goes before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, 21, which miracle is regularly continued both by day and night, 22. NOTES ON CHAP. XIII Verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses] The commands in this chapter appear to have been given at Succoth, on the same day in which they left Egypt.

1, 2. P’s law of the sanctity of the firstborn. The firstborn in Israel, both of men and cattle, were sacred to Jehovah. Here the principle is stated in its most general form: special details, not always consistent, are given elsewhere. In the ‘Book of the Covenant’ (E), see Exodus 22:29 b, 30: in Exodus 13:12 f. (|| Exodus 34:19 f.: both J), it is provided that only firstborn males are to be Jehovah’s, that the firstborn among men are to be redeemed, and the firstling of an ass (as an unclean animal) to be either redeemed by a lamb or killed; other firstlings are sacrificed to Jehovah (v. 15). In Deuteronomy 15:19-23, the firstling males of the herd and of the flock, if free from defect, are to be sacrificed at the central sanctuary, and the flesh eaten by the owner and his household at a sacred meal (cf. Exodus 12:6 f., 17 f., Exodus 14:23): in Numbers 18:15-18 (P) the firstborn of men and unclean beasts generally are to be redeemed, the former at 5 shekels a head; the firstling of ox, sheep, or goat is to be sacrificed, the flesh being—not the owner’s, as in Deuteronomy 15:19-23, but—the perquisite of the priests: the two laws evidently reflect the usage of two different periods of the history (see the writer’s Deut. p. 187). According to the (unhistorical) representation of P, the Levites, at the first census in the wilderness, were taken by Jehovah in lieu of the firstborn of the other tribes, Numbers 3:11-13; Numbers 3:40-51; Numbers 8:16-18. Both J (or RJE) and P assign as the ground of the custom the fact that Jehovah slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, both man and beast (Exodus 12:12; Exodus 12:29), at the Exodus,—the former (ch. Exodus 13:15) making it a memorial of the event, and the latter stating that Jehovah then ‘sanctified’ to Himself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, Numbers 3:13; Numbers 8:17 (P). On the question whether this was the real origin of the custom, see p. 409 f.

OF THE LAW OF THE , AND OF THE FEAST OF BREAD, Exodus 13:1-16.1, 2.